COLORADO!

Good riddance Kansas, finally. As of right now, we are in Fountain, Colorado. Colorado is absolutely gorgeous. Klye has family here that were kind enough to put us up, let us use their shower, air our tents out, clean our filthy clothes, raid their refrigerator, and whatever else it is that we do when we are back in a civilized world. We really can't thank them enough for all of their help, and kindness. This may not come as a surprise, but Kansas was as bad as everyone said it would be. We were hoping to make up some time in Kansas by CRUISING through the flat lands with an awesome tail-wind, but it turned out all we had was a head-wind and scorching sun above our heads. We heard a few sources mention that riding at night is a great way to beat the heat in Kansas, so we tried our luck that way. It was a great way to beat the heat for sure, but not as easy as we thought it would be. The one INCREDIBLE advantage to riding at night, is the mind-blowing amount of stars that are visible out here. Almost every night was like a trip to the planetarium. Our words can never describe the sights illuminated in the Kansas night skies. While in Kansas, we also met up with a few other riders who are West-bound as well! We happened to see two bicycles outside of a pizza hut in town that were obviously those of tourists, so we decided to go inside and see what was going on. While inside, another West-bounder happened to catch a sight of our bikes and got the same idea. It was really great because from the beginning of the trip till now, we have yet to meet anyone going the same way as us. It was like a class reunion or something. Yesterday afternoon, we were lucky to get an interview with a local news paper to help promote our ride furthermore. I believe the name of the paper is the Fountain Times. Tonight we head for Denver to meet up with a friend of ours who will show us around the city while we are in the area. Both Kyle and I are extremely excited for this leg of our trip, because from here on out there will be so many amazing natural sights to be seen. The Rockies are already over-whelmingly beautiful. Hopefully more updates, and pictures, so check back when possible!

UPDATES!

Alright, sorry I haven't updated in a long time, every computer we get to somehow would not let us upload our pictures to it, and we figured an update without pictures is pointless. So here they are. Since the last update, we have left Kentucky and gone through both Illinois (Hillinois) and Missouri (Misery). We are now in Pittsburg, Kansas. The Ozark Mountains were a trip, we actually had our worst day because of them- some 37 miles I believe. But all is well here in Kansas so far. When we left Kentucky, we got to take a ferry across the Ohio River into Illinois and soon after that we rode across the Mississippi River into Missouri. Sometime in Missouri, I believe the town was called Ellington, we were able to switch out our cassettes and chains with the new ones the guys at Shrewsbury Bicycles sent out to us- which really made a Huge difference when passing through the Ozarks. We have been meeting some of coolest people, all out here with a different story. Yesterday we met a 29 year old who is a recovering quadriplegic, who was once informed that he had a 1-in-1000 chance of ever feeding himself again, and is now out on the road in his custom road trike riding from California to Washington D.C. Both him and his mother have been having the time of their lives out here, and we can understand why. Seeing the country by bicycle, in our opinion, the best way to do it. Last night we were fortunate enough to find a Mexican restaurant after a 75 mile day into Kansas. After we ate ourselves in weight, we set out to find Lincoln City Park, which is the town's park in which touring cyclists can set up camp for the night. By the time we found the park it was dark out and kinda hard to navigate ourselves around so we settled for a spot amongst some trees. When we woke up, we realized that we pitched our tents on the Golf Course that sits near the town park. When we got out of our tents, there were golf carts, and lawn mowers all around, we found it pretty funny that we were just sprawled out with our tents and bikes all over their golf course. So that is that, nothing TOO exciting, but still having a ridiculously incredible time. Keep spreading the word about our ride, and check back for more updates!

Dixon, Kentucky

So we are just about out of Kentucky, hopefully by this afternoon, and it's safe to say that Kentucky has been a great time. We were very weary about this state from our first impressions, but things turned out for the best. We were lucky enough to have the chance to spend some time in Louisville thanks to a good friend of ours who picked us up in Bardstown and brought us to the city to show us around. We got some very important errands taken care of (new shoes and pedals because ours were almost useless, air out our wet and smelly tents, and laundry). We also got to eat some of the most delicious organic vegetables from our buddy's farm. To say the least, our time spent in Louisville was perfect. Last night, we stayed at the Utica Volunteer Fire Station. Utica, Kentucky let's travelers on the Trans American Bike Trail stay at the Fire House for free, as if it were a hostel. We were so blown away at their hospitality, and generosity, they even had a box full of goodies donated by the local church for traveling cyclists. I chose a few pictures that help sum up our time in Kentucky, so we hope you guys enjoy. Also, on another note, the donations we have been receiving for our fund is growing by the day, and the support we have from everywhere is almost unbelievable. We still can't thank everyone enough for the positive feedback, and encouragement.

-Kyle and Scott

Hello From Haysi!

We are in the small town of Haysi, Virginia (population 189). Roughly, we are 800+ miles from good ol' New Jersey. This afternoon we will cross the Kentucky state line, and finally get ourselves out of Virginia. It feels like we've been in Virginia for two months. Since the last update, we have parallelled the Allegheny Mountian's loop down through the Appalachian Mountains, and caught up with the Trans-American Trail in Christiansburg, Virginia. We have hit a ton of cool cities, and towns along our way so far, Lexington, Roanoke, Damascus (Huge AT Trail spot where the town has 5 bike shops, 3 outfitters, one restaurant and ZERO cell phone service). In Damascus we spent the night at a hostel called "The Place", which has been our favorite spot yet. Good vibes, and good people in Damascus.